BOSTON -- Michael Cabral was working as a police officer in Somerville 26 years ago when his mother called.

Cabral's father, a sergeant with the county sheriff's office, had come home from the firing range in tears. He had not done well that day, faced some teasing and feared he might lose his job. Cabral's father grabbed his gun and said to his wife, "Please tell the kids I love them."

Cabral sped toward his father's house, then to the park where his father taught Cabral to play baseball. He saw his father standing on the ball field.

"Dad said, 'Mike, go back,'" Cabral recalled. "I said, 'Dad don't do that.' He put a gun to his head and took his own life."

"I've had to live with that for 26 years of my life," said Cabral, now a captain at the Somerville Police Department. "Not a day goes by I don't think of him. I wish there had been an opportunity for him to get help."

The two-hour course would be implemented in all police training schools and would teach officers about developing healthy coping skills, recognizing post-traumatic stress disorder, recognizing signs of suicidal behavior in themselves and others and finding mental health resources.

The bill had a hearing before the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security on Thursday.

Janice McCarthy, the widow of state police Capt. Paul McCarthy, who took his own life in 2006, founded a nonprofit to help police suicide survivors and offer training. Her husband was hit by a stolen MBTA bus and never recovered emotionally from PTSD.

The couple's 8-year-old son wondered if the suicide was his fault. Their daughter dreads her birthday, since the day her father killed himself was her 14th birthday. Their 16-year-old son became the man of the house.

McCarthy said her husband left behind a rambling memo pleading for help. "The rambling verbiage illustrates the dark place Paul was in, but he couldn't express himself in any other way for fear of retribution or condemnation," McCarthy said.

According to Karen Solomon, founder of Blue HELP, which raises awareness of officer suicide and advocates for mental health benefits, six police officers have died from suicide in Massachusetts in 2017. Another five Massachusetts officers died from suicide in 2016, compared with two killed in the line of duty.

Nationwide, 138 U.S. law enforcement officers killed themselves in 2016, almost all by gunshot. They were mostly male, married and on active duty. Many were career police officers late in their careers.

Blue HELP, which compiled the information, asked the police departments if the officers sought help. Thirty-one percent did, 24 percent did not, and the rest were unknown.

Solomon said when a police officer is asked if they want to talk to a mental health professional after a mission, they will almost always say no unless it is mandatory.

"Suicide has stigma, especially in law enforcement," Solomon said. She said passing the bill and requiring training would reduce the stigma and let police officers know it is OK to seek help.

Barry Feldman, director of psychiatry programs in public safety at UMass Medical School, said Massachusetts spends less money than any other state on training for law enforcement -- $187 per officer, compared with a high of $1,500 per officer in Vermont. None of that training relates to mental health and wellness.

Jeffrey Zeizel, a clinical social worker who works with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and other law enforcement personnel, said law enforcement officials spend enormous sums on equipment and weapons. "I'm here today to support the notion let's bulletproof the mind," Zeizel said.

A police department that had suicide prevention training called Zeizel recently to talk to an officer. Department officials had taken the officer's gun and stayed with him until Zeizel arrived.

Zeizel asked the officer what was going on. The officer responded that he was walking to his police cruiser, gun in hand, about to commit suicide, when a fellow officer stopped him. "If that person didn't grab him, you would read about it in today's Boston Globe," Zeizel said.